Fender Mustang III V2 Guitar Amplifier Review

Fender Mustang III V2 Guitar Amplifier Review

The Fender Mustang III V2 Guitar amplifier is an amplifier modelling device designed to be used as a platform for not only getting a huge variety of tones. Technology aside, it’s aso designed to be as functional as a regular guitar amplifier. I wasn’t interested in testing these amps out initially but once I started working with my own presets I was totally blown away by them. I think one of things that continually lets Fender down is it’s online promotion as well as the Fender Roadshow live events. Anytime you hear a “Solid State” amplifier (or transistor) it’s always got some non-Fender sounding face-melting metal preset. Fender suck at Metal tones and aiming these towards that market isolates it away from their biggest audience – the Tube Snobs. I don’t know if this sort of marketing is intentional or not, but they clearly have zero demos of the Mustang III sounding as good as the videos below.

What makes the Mustang III (and IV) amplifier so good is the fact it can totally be used by us tubes snobs (me included!) and it can even trick those who have continued down the Tube road without even knowledge of this amps existence in the market place. The first video demo below is a quick cycle through some of the “bog standard” presets that come with the amp, none of these are the Metal Presets. They already sound pretty good as is, but with some tweaking you can really get so much more out of this amplifier, the the point that it’s basically benched my heavier tube amps for a while.

This video of the Mustang III V2 is a basic overview of the “blues tones'” you’ll find straight away

This next video puts the Mustang III against the Fender Deluxe Reverb to see if you can hear a difference.

This video gives you the answer to the previous video. Did you get it right? It’s so close and either way, neither sound bad.

With some tweaking, we did another Blind Test of the Fender Mustang III V2 against the Custom Shop Eric Clapton Tremolux Amplifier… It even fooled us in the room!

This video is the answer to the above video. The majority of people guessed incorrectly on YouTube and Facebook.

This video shows how usable the onboard Tubescreamer / Overdrive pedals are on the Mustang III V2 Amplifier in comparison to the external pedals.

This amplifier is all tone, I love it. I never would of thought I would enjoy it so much. I’ve had about 20 tube amps over the years and I can easily say, while this is a Solid State amplifier, it has tone for days and is very usable and simple once you set up a few tones you like. I would suggest getting the four button footswitch as well as it works in conjunction with the Tuner, Overdrive/Distortion, Modulation and Delay (if you choose to use them all).

The Fender Mustang III V2 is rated at 100 watts and it is VERY LOUD! It’s not like most ratings for Transistor/Tube amps, it’s just very loud and sounds so good up on 4 or 5 on the volume dial. I’ve compared it with a ’65 Deluxe Reverb Reissue, Super-Sonic 22, Blues Deluxe Reissue, and a Fender Tremolux and it can not only imitate all those amps, it’s just as loud.

All in all I am seriously loving the Mustang III V2, so much so that I may end up getting the Mustang IV as well which is the 2×12 version of the same amp.

(4.8 / 5) I am giving this amp a 4.8/5 so it’s next to perfect. The reason I didn’t give it a 5/5 is some people might find the interface confusing and the stock presets are very average. Once you sort out your own sounds this amp is priceless! I love it and I will use it live as a cheaper, lighter and louder alternative to some of the small amps I own. It totally replaced my Fender Blues Junior and Fender Excelsior in terms of usability. I have been a Tube amp guy for year and this is the first solid state amp since the Peavey Bandit that totally blows away most amps on the market. Try them out before you judge them.